Extortion Plot on Wealthy Dating Web Site

Extortion plots against the wealthy stemming from their personal indiscretions–Sextortions?–seem to be in the news lately.

seekingarangements.com

First there was Swiss con man Helg Sgarbi, who tried to extort millions of euros from several wealthy wealthy women, including Germany’s Susanne Klatten, the billionaire heir to the BMW fortune.

Now comes news of an unidentified Greenwich, Conn., man who was the victim of an extortion attempt on a wealthy dating site. It started on the site seekingarangements.com, which is devoted to linking “SugarDaddies” with “SugarBabies” and features older men holding $100 bills and young women on its Web site.

Police say Dawn Jessop, a Mansfield, Ohio, woman communicated with the Greenwich victim–described as being in his 50s–got gifts and money from the man through the site. She and her husband then threatened to release emails, chats and pictures sent by the man unless he paid them $100,000, which he did, according to police. Dawn Jessop and her 29-year-old husband, Christopher Jessop, were arrested after seeking to collect the money.

The site;s creator says this kind of thing has never happened before. He added that they have strong safeguards to prevent unlawful activity on the site. Still, the potential seems obvious. Why would anyone with wealth participate in an online site specifically created to link the privileged with gold diggers? Yes, the real reason may be obvious. But so are the risks.

Stephan Smith, an employee of the site, says a majority of the older people on the site send gifts to their young partners in exchange for engaging them in some sort of a relationship.

My view is that the wealthy should always avoid sites that single them out for their wealth. As one commenter said wisely on Friday’s post, “why advertise that you’re rich”–especially in this economy? It is only a short step from “Please send me a diamond bracelet” to “Give me $100,000 or else.”